Good comedy needs relevance, and this year’s YAMO sketch comedy show was a goldmine of Wildkit references and inside jokes.

Between Chromebook insults and logo tear downs, BCC callouts and Friday songs (not to forget the ever present New Trier jab), students, parents, and our own Principal Campbell were both amused and entertained. Still, the overall production felt underwhelming.

Despite the success of many ETHS related wisecracks, such as the easily recognizable morning announcements, the audience was still unsure of whether they were laughing at the cast members or with them.

Similarly, some potentially good skits like “Straight Outta Stratford” and “Bachelor Revealed,” left their punchlines somewhere on the side of the road during that improvised family road trip from He…..ck. And in others, potentially brilliant dialogue got lost through a lack of enunciation and poorly placed shouting.

Though the fresh and funny “Comedy Network” theme was consistently incorporated and made the show cohesive, a satisfactory conclusion to the central storyline was clearly missing. That being said, in-show references like the return of Sam Bailey’s stellar Zumba instructor in “So I Think You Can Dance” kept the audience laughing.

Highlights were the clever (and timely) “Back to the Future Part 1.5”, which combined a myriad of pop culture references with a touch of commentary in a way that was fresh and well executed.

Overall, despite its shortcomings, YAMO is a classic part of the ETHS experience that is both entertaining and well-worth seeing.